Gorton, Harold

Title

Gorton, Harold

Description

136 items. The collection concerns Squadron Leader Harold Gorton (1914 - 1944, 120984, Royal Air Force) and contains eight photographs and 126 letters to his wife and family. Harold Gorton studied at Oxford, and throughout his time in the RAF he continued studying law. He completed a tour of operations as a pilot in 1941 and was then posted as an instructor to RAF Cark. He returned to operations with 49 Squadron stationed at RAF Fulbeck in 1944. He was killed 11/12 November 1944 during an operation to Harburg.

The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mair Gorton and Ian Gorton, and catalogued by Barry Hunter.

Additional information on Harold Gorton is available via the IBCC Losses Database.

Date

2017-05-30

Publisher

IBCC Digital Archive

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.

Identifier

Gorton, H

Collection Items

Harold Gorton
A side view cartoon of Harold Gorton. He is standing with his hands in his pockets. It is captioned 'Gort' and is signed 'Pat Rooney 1943'.

Airman
An airman is standing with his hands in his pockets, in front of a rough stone wall and a house with a bay window. The window is blacked out and has crosses of tape on it.

Harold Gorton
Head and shoulders portrait of Harold Gorton. On the reverse

'Portrait by
J. Dewhurst,
23 May 1942
Farnworth
Phone 193'.

Jim Hodgson
Jim Hodgson is standing in uniform with his hands in his pockets. Behind is a rough stone wall and a house with a bay window. The window is blacked out and has crosses of tape on it. On the reverse 'Jim Hodgson'.

Harold Gorton and two airmen
Three airmen, including Harold Gorton, standing with arms around each other. They are in front of a rough stone wall and further behind a house with a bay window. The window is blacked out and has crosses of tape on it.

Harold  and Lilian Gorton's wedding
A full length wedding portrait of Sergeant Harold Gorton and Lilian, née Morgan. He is wearing his uniform and she is dressed in white. She carries a large floral bouquet.

Harold Gorton
Three quarters portrait of Corporal Harold Gorton in uniform. The buttons of his battledress pockets are loose.

Harold Gorton
Three quarters portrait of Harold Gorton whilst under training. On the reverse 'T4 10057'.

Harold Gorton graduation photograph
A half-length portrait of Harold Gorton sitting on an ornate chair. He is wearing a gown and fur lined cape. The photograph is mounted in a card inscribed with the 'J. Dewhurst, Farnworth'.

Letter from Lilian Morgan to her sister and mother
She writes about arrangements for her wedding to Harold Gorton.

Letter from  Harold Gorton to  Grace Morgan
Leading Aircraftman Harold Gorton writes to his sister-in-law to be about arrangements for his wedding to Lilian Morgan.

Letter from  Harold Gorton to his wife
Harold Gorton writes about his wife's departure and a party she missed.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of domestic details and the weather.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his social activities.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of meeting the ground crew and of a new aircraft coming to the Flight.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his flying and colleagues from Cark.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his flying over Nottingham and activities at RAF Fiskerton.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes about purchasing a new cooker for their house.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of training lectures at RAF Fiskerton and of his social activities.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of a journey through Birmingham and of domestic arrangements.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes about the arrangement for his leave.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his arrival at RAF Fiskerton to begin operational flying.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his flying, the weather, attendance at a court martial at RAF Swinderby and arrangement for meeting up at Newark station.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of the weather, flying and his car.

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
He writes of his first flight in a Stirling.
View all 136 items

Collection Tree

  • Gorton, Harold